Phishing E-mails Pretending to be from PayPal Identified

E-mails posing as messages from PayPal have been found presently circulating online, while aiming at unwitting Internet users, cautioned hoax-slayer.com dated May 14, 2012.

With a caption, "We need your help resolving an issue with your account!" a text appears on the spoofed electronic mail that addressing the recipient as "Dear Customer," tells him that his help is necessary for fixing a problem his account is facing. As a result, some time is requested of him, while his account is being temporarily blocked till a solution to the problem is found. PayPal realizes the trouble this will cause the user, but the company aims at working with him for reviving normalcy of his account at the earliest, the text continues.

The message then solicits slightly additional information regarding the user for apparently substantiating his identity. Thus, he should follow one web-link embedded on the phishing electronic mail, it states.

But, on following the web-link, the user is likely to land on a website, which displays a form, asking several details of the end-user. These are his name, birth date, address, residence phone number, country, state along with still further sensitive information like credit card name, card verification value (CVV) expiration date, car number, Social Security Number (SSN) as well as answers to twin security questions.

Once the details are entered into the form, they get saved inside a database, which the scammers control remotely.

Phishing e-mails, which cash in on PayPal's reputed position, aren't unknown, however, whenever one is unleashed, the scammers innovate it with a little twist all to make its recipients think it's authentic.

Nevertheless, PayPal offers certain suggestions for assisting its clients against getting victimized with the above kind of scam e-mails. So it asks them to be careful with formal salutations such as "Dear Customer" or "Dear User" as within the above-stated instance. If an e-mail is indeed from PayPal, it'll use the recipient's full name. Additionally, scam e-mails typically hasten their recipients to provide certain crucial update otherwise harm will come onto their accounts, like it's discussed within the aforementioned instance, PayPal adds on its web-post.